2020’s New Rules For Small Business Mobile Ad Monetization

The Golden Rules Of Mobile Ad Monetization Are Changing

In the past, conversations about the best ways to monetize a website or (more recently) monetize an app have hinged on developers’ and consumers’ mutual understanding that if you’re not paying for something, you’re the product. Though consumers have never necessarily liked this idea, it has been historically relatively easy to construe tacit participation in desktop and mobile ad monetization networks as both a necessary and occasionally benevolent kind of evil.

Heading into the 2020s, however, app users and online consumers are more sensitive to data mining and privacy, as well as the ways their participation is used for other people’s personal gain.

Consequently, as many as 56% of consumers now have negative attitudes towards targeted, hosted ads (making monetized mobile ad campaigns potentially damaging to the credibility of all brands involved). What’s more, millennials now occupy the most powerful spot in the consumer market, making their growing resistance to viewing or responding to ads much more important (about half now use mobile ad blocking tech, and the vast majority would rather make purchasing decisions based on user generated content). These new and growing negative attitudes and active avoidant habits — sometimes called “ad-llergies” — are dramatically reshaping the best-practices for mobile ad monetization, whether you aim to monetize an app or monetize a website.

Some industry experts say that about 70% of the success (or failure) of any mobile ad monetization effort is related to ad placement within the app (or site) space. That’s because about 70% of mobile users actively dislike them (with only desktop pop-up ads earning more ire than mobile ad monetization campaigns).

Users these days tend to resent being forced to interact with an ad, whether it's being used to monetize an app or monetize a website. That includes video ads that auto-play (which is significant given that ad networks today prioritize video ads as the most engaging ad type).

When it comes right down to it, consumers are no longer willing to put up with intrusive, invasive, or annoying ads that make it more difficult to interact with the app or site they’re trying to use. In cases where they encounter these kinds of ads for mobile apps, especially, users are vastly more likely just to abandon the app than pay for an add-free version, find adequate mobile ad blocking tech for it, or wait out the ad appearances.

Each of these mobile ad monetization strategies aligns with recent mobile advertising trends without sacrificing users’ feelings of autonomy and control over how much interaction they have with ads. This is essential, given that about 77%-83% of consumers would prefer not to have to participate in mobile ad blocking (rather hoping to be able to self-determine which and what kind of ads they want to see under different circumstances).

When we talk about “lean” mobile ad monetization strategies, we’re really talking about being much more intentional about your choices for how you monetize your app. Making deliberate decisions can mean the difference between driving users away with annoying, invasive, user-experience-killing mobile ad campaigns, or actually enhancing their in-app experience.

That’s because users’ already-negative impressions of ads lead them to feel highly distrusting of developers who choose to host ads. The majority of consumers today tend to believe that unsafe, annoying, or access-blocking ads were intentionally designed to get their accidental or compulsory engagement. If users already expect you to be intentional about how advertisements appear in your mobile ad monetization efforts, you need to make sure you actually are (and that you’re doing it to good effect).

What Is ASO Strategy & How Does App Store Optimization Work?ASO strategy (short for app store optimization strategy) is the combination of user-targeting decisions made and techniques used in creating an app